Qriocity

Sony CEO Howard Stringer has published a public letter of apology for the PlayStation Network hack crisis, announcing the first aspect of Sony's promised compensation for US PSN users and Qriocity subscribers. Sony is offering 12 months subscription to Debix's AllClear ID Plus service, which includes monitoring and surveillance of potential fraudulent activity, priority access to identity theft restitution services, and a $1m identity theft insurance policy per user.

The attack on Sony's Playstation Network is getting serious attention from the U.S. House of Representatives today, as the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade held a hearing today. The subject? “The Threat of Data Theft to American Consumers.” Sony had declined to appear at the hearing, but Kazuo Hirai, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sony Computer Entertainment America, has sent in written responses to questions posed by the subcommittee. We have followed the PSN story very closely, as Sony has struggled to deal with the "very carefully planned, very professional, highly sophisticated criminal cyber attack" on its network.

Sony has confirmed that it will begin a phased restoration of PlayStation Network and Qriocity streaming services this week, rolling out region by region, and bringing back newly-strengthened online gaming, music downloads, PlayStation Home access and more. Meanwhile Sony has also detailed its "complimentary offering and "welcome back" appreciation program" with which it hopes to sooth frustrated PSN users.

After admitting that the personal details of the 42m+ PlayStation Network users have been leaked, Sony has argued that it couldn't warn subscribers of potential data loss when the system was first taken down because it took "outside experts" to confirm it. According to Nick Caplin, SCEE's head of comms, the delay involved in "forensic analysis" explains why it took the company so long to warn users that their information had been compromised.

Sony has admitted that "an external intrusion" is responsible for the PlayStation Network downtime, which began last week and has continued throughout the weekend. The exact nature of the attack has not been identified, but forced Sony to take both the PSN and its Qriocity media streaming services offline late on Wednesday evening. Work is now underway to rebuild the PSN with "additional security" according to a company spokesperson.

Sony has announced that its Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity streaming audio service will land on the PSP as of April 14. The update will mean that PSP owners will be able to stream any of Sony's 7m+ tracks direct to their handheld console over WiFi; the service is already available on Sony computers and the PS3, and will soon be coming to the company's Android handsets.

Amidst the whole PS3 hacking saga that is Sony vs. Geohot, a new announcement--or warning--has just been released by Sony to really lay down the law. Their message basically says that if you get caught then you’re banned for life.

Even if some companies out there believe that unlimited music for a monthly subscription-style fee isn't the best bet, there's plenty of other companies out there who would disagree. And plenty of consumers who would, too. If you own a PSP, you're about to get your own taste of the subscription-based music platform yourself, as the upcoming software update to the PSP, and PlayStation 3, isn't just about the movies. It's also bringing Qriocity's Music Unlimited service to the portable gaming platform.

Hooray, Sony will soon be bringing their Qriocity streaming movie service to all PSP machines and Bravia TVs and Blue-ray players and home theater systems in the UK. Oh you UK, you're gonna love it. What this means for the PSP is access to the Sony Music Unlimited library, for the other devices, this will mean they've got complete access to the stream of streaming goodness. In the PSP, this update will require the user to move to version 6.35 (which is coming soon.) Along with the update will come an icon that'll sit in the XMB interface's Music category.